1. Don’t Use Banned Hashtags On The Post

Not all hashtags are created equal. Using one of Instagram’s banned hashtags can land you in hot water and ignorance is not an excuse.

While some banned hashtags are pretty common sense and align with Instagram’s terms of service, others aren’t so obvious. According to the HuffPo, the banned list includes #adulting, #citycentre and #eggplant. Research the hashtags you use carefully, make sure that they are relevant for your audience and don’t have a secret, urban dictionary or emoji meaning you didn’t know about… (Not that this has ever happened to me!)

2. Use Third Party Posting App

Instagram has a closed API– it doesn’t allow third party apps to post directly to Instagram. You can still use a social media dashboard like Agorapulse to manage your Instagram account but the process is a little bit more complicated than for Facebook or Twitter.

Most legit social media management apps work around the challenge. For example, you can log into your Agorapulse account and schedule an Instagram post.

When the time comes, you’ll receive a notification. You can then log into the Agorapulse app which will take you to Instagram where you can hit publish. The key is that you have to be the one that hits publish.

But, while that’s how we do it, there are some apps like Schedugram that post directly to Instagram for you, using your user name and password to access your account. This is a big Terms and Conditions no no. Jumping through a few extra hoops can be frustrating but it keeps your account safe.

3. Don’t post too much Content

Instagram favors real, human posters and all the dos and don’ts are meant to prioritize them over spammers and bots. Whereas Twitter has apps like Social Quant that can automatically follow and unfollow a bunch of people to build up your following, Instagram frowns on that kind of behavior. That’s why they have an unofficial cap on account activity.

What exactly are those numbers? While Instagram hasn’t released official numbers Ana Gotter did some in depth research and came up with the following:

Following and unfollowing over 60 people an hour

Liking more than 300 posts an hour

Posting over 60 comments an hour

4. Stay away from the robots

Look. In any other circumstances, I’ll be the first to point out the potential of bots in automating your marketing process but that’s not what Instagram is all about.

Bots that auto comment and follow/ unfollow people can be a tempting way to grow your account. You’ll be the kind of person that uses them responsibly, right? But, going back to Rule 3, this kind of behavior will get you noticed for all the wrong reasons. Keep your interactions human.

Kapil Tyagi is a Passionate Blogger | Digital Marketing Consultant | Speaker | Trainer
Hi! I am a Certified Digital Marketing Professional with 5+ years of experience in improving traffic, Generating Leads for B2B, B2C & Media Companies and conversions for websites & have expertise in SEM, SEO, SMO, AdWords, E-mail Marketing & SMS Marketing with positive result for clients. For DM Support and Service call on 9953226625